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Games Beaten 2019

Re: Games Beaten 2019

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 7:53 pm

by BogusMeatFactory

pook99 wrote:Can I just pop in to ask everyone to stop talking politics in all ways shapes and forms. I'm pretty sure its against the forum rules, and honestly, I've had a pretty shitty week and come here to read and talk about video games, I just don't want to read anyones political opinions on a forum like this.

Not trying to be insulting or anything, you all seem very intelligent, but this is just not the place for it, lets stick to our common love here which is retro themed video games.

Don't know how this conversation has anything to do with political stances, political policy or party lines. Just saying the inclusion of women in a video game is in no way a bad thing.

Re: Games Beaten 2019

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 8:14 pm

by pook99

BogusMeatFactory wrote:

pook99 wrote:Can I just pop in to ask everyone to stop talking politics in all ways shapes and forms. I'm pretty sure its against the forum rules, and honestly, I've had a pretty shitty week and come here to read and talk about video games, I just don't want to read anyones political opinions on a forum like this.

Not trying to be insulting or anything, you all seem very intelligent, but this is just not the place for it, lets stick to our common love here which is retro themed video games.

Don't know how this conversation has anything to do with political stances, political policy or party lines. Just saying the inclusion of women in a video game is in no way a bad thing.

It does, in this polarizing climate everything is political, I won't get into the logistics of it because I don't want to even hint at what my politics are, but the battlefield V issue definitely raised a political stink when it came up

Re: Games Beaten 2019

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 8:31 pm

by pierrot

pook99 wrote:Can I just pop in to ask everyone to stop talking politics in all ways shapes and forms. I'm pretty sure its against the forum rules, and honestly, I've had a pretty shitty week and come here to read and talk about video games, I just don't want to read anyones political opinions on a forum like this.

Not trying to be insulting or anything, you all seem very intelligent, but this is just not the place for it, lets stick to our common love here which is retro themed video games.

I agree, pook. This is a topic for Twitter, and it's why I'm not on Twitter.

Re: Games Beaten 2019

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 8:49 pm

by BogusMeatFactory

This is silly. No one is saying "this political party is misogynists and don't want women in games." It is perfectly okay to bring up the fact that there is a group of people that are mad because women are in a game. To say we can't address that or talk about it is complicant to the issue at hand. Everyone is being a bit overly sensitive. There is nothing wrong saying it's not a big deal that women were represented in a game and it is in no way a political statement. This weird insistence that it is in some way affiliated with some political movement is silly. Women can be in video games and people can say, "Hey good on them for having women in video games." if you have a problem with that, go hang out on Ex's little boys club forum where the big "no girls allowed" sign hangs.

Re: Games Beaten 2019

That's not fair, and I don't really know where that's even coming from. Also, it's a little bit hypocritical, considering that there aren't really any women hanging out on Racketboy, either.

The Battlefield games don't matter to me, and I can't even begin to care about these kinds of controversies in games anymore, but the real reason I feel like you guys should knock it off, is because the last couple responses to Ordinary Gamer in this thread have appeared to be pretty hostile. I kind of thought he'd be gone after the first one, and he came back with a relatively reasonable, and measured response. The combativeness is just uncalled for.

Re: Games Beaten 2019

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:46 pm

by marurun

Before we get too far down this rabbit-hole, everyone please re-familiarize yourselves with the rules, particularly section C.3:

And in accordance with those rules, this topic is ok, but not in this thread. Elkinfencer10’s review mention of the issue is allowed here as it is part of his review and germane to his assessment of the game. OrdinaryGamer’s response and responses to their response do not belong in this thread as they risk derailing the thrust of this thread. So no more on that in here. Feel free to create a thread elsewhere, so long as the discussion is kept within the context of games and the immediate gaming community, and remains generally non-disruptive otherwise.

Ack's recent playthrough, the reset Nightdive source port, and wanting a palette cleanser for Rage 2 brought me to Blood. The third of the big three Build engine games, Blood is the first notable game by Monolith (the US company) and has a horror bent to it. You play Caleb, a disciple of the dark god Tchernobog who gets betrayed and buried alive. So, being rightly pissed off, you decide to go on a rampage. Remember when the 90s was all about objectively terrible people being the protagonists?

Now, unlike Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior, Blood is a bit slower paced. Enemies tend to have a bit more health and are a bit more threatening. Now, it's not to say this moves slowly, but it isn't blisteringly fast like other FPS's of the era. The game also leans into the horror with some of the level design. The levels are all incredibly well designed and evocative of real places, and specifically real places you might find in a horror movie. The game also combines it with some creepy music to keep you unsettled. My favorite part was in the Shining level; at one point I looked in a mirror in a bathroom and an axe zombie jumped out of the bathtub behind me.

Unfortunately, the first episode of the game has some major balance issues. The game uses the old style of every episode starts you off with no equipment, and does the thing where the first episode is a slow burn of equipment, while the other episodes give them to you quickly. This is a problem because the shockingly hard enemies combined with the clumsy initial weapons are a bad combination. The replacement for the pistol is a flare that does damage over time and sets enemies on fire when they take enough; this will one shot all the opening enemies, but after several seconds (which gives them time to nail you with their hitscan weaponry). The shotgun is a sawed off that requires a reload every two shots and is awful at range. Considering the early levels have a lot of open spaces you again will take a ton of damage. And the final thing that makes it bad is that the difficulty ramps up enemy accuracy and reactions extremely fast. I'd recommend you turn the game down a difficulty level. Once you get midway through episode 1 it's fine; you now have a decent hitscan weapon for ranged fights and you don't just lose random health for rounding corners, and the other episodes give you good weapons within the first level.

Balance issues aside, it's a great example of 90s FPS design that isn't overly long and has some of the best level design I've ever seen.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is now my favorite "Castlevania" game in the 8/16-bit style. An enjoyable homage that is a blast to play through.

MvC:I was a 1cc replay through Arcade mode - it is still arguably the least interesting MvC game.

Rage does more wrong than right. The last few levels have more frentic and fun gunplay, but the story is a chore, the ending is a waste, and the more interesting guns/craftable items are not ever really needed. A giant meh. The good parts were enough to make me want to eventually play Rage 2...but only when I can find it super cheap.

This continues to be a very slow year for beating games. Maybe, now that summer is here, things will pick up a bit.

40. Lagoon (SNES)Lagoon isn't exactly - shall we say - "well-liked." One-star reviews are both numerous and verbose, explicitly chronicling all the game's failings. It tops countless "Worst RPGs Ever" lists. Various YouTubers, those beacons of critical games analysis, have ripped Lagoon to shreds. As have the "pro" critics, 1991 to present. And I'll admit it - I wasn't sold on Lagoon at first. After repeated playthroughs I began to warm up, and have reached the point where I'm willing to call this a "decent game." One common complaint is that Lagoon pales in comparison to the likes of Secret of Mana, A Link to the Past, and other 16-bit action-RPG titans. This may be true, but Lagoon simply isn't that type of game. It's a computer action-RPG (albeit one that was ported to a console) and is thus infused with all the requisite elements of the genre: a lone hero, a short linear quest, a small cache of available items, rest-healing, rigid keyboard-y combat, the ability to save almost anywhere, and a heavy emphasis on grinding to the max level. This is not a AAA console RPG. It's the forgotten offspring of Xak, of Ys, of the big boss bumper Hydlide.

Lagoon was originally released on the brilliant Sharp X68000 in 1990. It's the second game developed by Zoom who is also responsible for the nigh-unplayable Genocide, the bizarrely-packaged Phalanx, and the blood-sucking simulator Mister Mosquito. The Super Famicom and SNES releases of Lagoon appeared in the same month (December 1991), which is a bit odd given how lengthy the JRPG localization process tends to be.

The protagonist, Nasir (a Square tribute, perhaps?), finds that the water supply of his hometown has been poisoned. He heads off to find out why, and eventually becomes embroiled in a quest of semi-epic proportions. Some friends are met along the way, including a guy named Thor who turns out to be - wait for it - some kind of god. Eventually it's revealed that a species of generic "great evil" is attempting to take over the world, but I can't remember the specifics. Things get a little too verbose (and nonsensical) as the story progresses.The first town is arguably the weakest part of the game. Navigation is odd, especially since half the houses can't be entered. Those that can alternate between Ys style "pop-up windows" and actual explorable dwellings. There's a series of mini fetch quests and an ungainly heaping of dialogue. Eventually things get rolling. Lagoon features the traditional town-dungeon flow, but with a twist. Backtracking is not necessary or even feasible - most dungeons are double-ended and dump our hero out into a small "field" section which connects to the next town. There are several "point of no return" moments along the journey, though nothing essential can be missed.

The townsfolk vary by location. First it's humans, then elves, hobbits(!), dwarves, and gnomes (I think). NPCs are quite loquacious and plenty of weapons and armor are available for sale - though the best stuff is always located in dungeons. The dungeons themselves aren't bad. Most contain plenty of branching walkways, though it's difficult to get lost and the extra space provides ample opportunities for level-grinding.

Graphically, things are pretty solid - especially for 1991 standards. Everything is crisp and colorful and enemy sprites are well-drawn. There are also several anime cutscenes - typical for this type of game - which look great even if the artwork is a bit Manga 101. Some subtle touches spruce things up too - Nasir's sprite changes depending on what armor is equipped and every single dungeon key he obtains has a different design to it.

Music is unexpectedly awesome, probably the best attribute of Lagoon. Like Terranigma, it sometimes seems to verge on CD quality. Songs are fast and upbeat throughout, which meshes well with the game's general pacing and aesthetics. And like Soul Blazer there's some heavy abuse of slap bass, though it sounds a hundred times more appropriate here. In contrast, the game's scattered "shrines" showcase some gorgeous ethereal tunes.

For many, the biggest point of contention is Lagoon's combat. Notice how I said Nasir could buy "weapons" in town instead of "swords." This is because his blade of choice may not be a sword at all, but a toothpick. Its range is incredibly short and requires one to be right on top of enemies to make contact. Nasir is also right-handed and "pokes" his blade outwards rather than swinging it which makes things doubly difficult. I "got used to" this (always attack from the side and get a rhythm going) though many consider it game-breaking. Ultimately, Lagoon's combat rests in this weird gray area between the Ys bumping and the more traditional Zelda-esque swordplay. Either system would have worked out better here. And video footage tells me that things weren't so awkward on the Sharp X68000, where Nasir could opt to hold his blade out for extended periods of time.There's also offensive magic, which ameliorates some of the dicey swordplay issues. The magic system is interesting; different spells are crafted by combining rods and elemental jewels. Early magic is the typical fire/ice projectile fare, while late-game spells are screen-fillers that can hit nearby enemies without aiming. The more powerful spells are actually worse, however. They're slow to cast, with excessive onscreen animation, and deduct massive chunks of MP from Nasir's total. Certain enemies are immune to certain spells, though there doesn't seem to be much logic to this system, and while it's not as irritating as the sword-swapping of Crystalis it's still intermittently frustrating. Additionally, there are rings to equip to boost various stats. These drain MP rapidly and are generally useless outside of boss battles.

Despite the inherent awkwardness present during combat, it's very difficult to be defeated by standard enemies. HP and MP slowly fill as long as Nasir remains motionless, and unlike Ys this occurs regardless of location of equipment. Let me emphasize the "slowly" part -- towards the end of the game a well-beaten Nasir will need to chill for about two real-life minutes before he's ready to roll again. Thankfully, due to enemy AI and respawn patterns it's always easy to find a "safe spot" within any given dungeon. All dungeons house at least one boss. They're huge, fast, ugly, and present quite the dilemma. The automatic healing is dropped during boss battles, naturally, but for some bizarre reason magic itself also becomes disabled. Even more confusing is the rings: some can be utilized during boss skirmishes, while others lose their effectiveness. Hitting the run-of-the-mill scoundrels that roam dungeon hallways is tough enough, but it pales in comparison to how terrible the boss hit detection is programmed. Even the largest foes have just one specific "spot" that needs to be sliced in order for damage to be dealt, and finding said area requires multiple tedious attempts. It's easiest to just throw all "strategy" out the window - grind excessively, and then run into each boss fight swinging your sword wildly and hope for the best. While this method generally "works" just fine, the final boss (or final cluster of bosses, actually) can only be beaten once Nasir's maximum XP level has been reached. This string of battles is exponentially more difficult than anything faced prior, and arguably somewhat broken. When the third-to-last boss is slain, the penultimate boss immediately spawns onscreen. Should Nasir find himself standing in the "wrong" place it's instant death and the whole posse must be faced again.

It's easy to rag on Lagoon, and I've surely done my part, but I ultimately enjoyed my ten hours with it. It's a delightfully grungy old RPG. It's weird, perplexing, and more-than-occasionally irritating - but it's also persistently charming. Probably more "historically interesting" than "good" I guess, but the ARPG nerd in me is totally cool with that. The music, history, and reputation alone make this one worth picking up at least one. It ain't Ys, that's for sure, but it also ain't worth skipping.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is now my favorite "Castlevania" game in the 8/16-bit style. An enjoyable homage that is a blast to play through.

MvC:I was a 1cc replay through Arcade mode - it is still arguably the least interesting MvC game.

Rage does more wrong than right. The last few levels have more frentic and fun gunplay, but the story is a chore, the ending is a waste, and the more interesting guns/craftable items are not ever really needed. A giant meh. The good parts were enough to make me want to eventually play Rage 2...but only when I can find it super cheap.

This continues to be a very slow year for beating games. Maybe, now that summer is here, things will pick up a bit.

Bloodstained: COM is also one of my new favorite castlevania games, it is so authentic and well done that I add it to my rotation when I decide to play old castlevania games. There are so many different ways to play through it, and it probably has the best replay value of any classic castlevania game. I recently replayed it and the original castlevania, probably will play either 3 or 4 next.

@Bonesnapdeez: My brother used to love Lagoon, that and Drakkhen were probably his 2 favorite SNES games lol. I remember enjoying it as a kid but I haven't played it since I was 14.